Selection of the first group of innovative projects for funding under the European Innovation Council

57 small and medium-sized companies have been selected for funding under the recently launched European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot. The companies will receive a total amount of 94.25 million euro.

Among the selected projects, there are: a 3D printer for food; an innovative treatment for breast cancer; a virtual reality and augmented reality headset capable of human eye resolution. In this phase of the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument (the so-called Phase 2), each project will receive up to 2.5 million euro (5 million euro for health projects) to finance innovation activities such as demonstration, testing, piloting and scaling up. In addition, the companies will also benefit from 12 days of free business coaching and business acceleration services.

Most companies selected for funding are in the field of health, engineering and information and communication technology (ICT), and are based in Spain (13), the Netherlands (6), followed by France and Finland (both 5), and thirteen other countries across Europe.